Dr. R. H. Boyd moved to Nashville in 1896. / File / The Tennessean

Written by

Hamlet Fort

The Tennessean

Richard Boyd

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Originally named Dick Gray at birth by his slave master, Richard H. Boyd would change his name after the Civil War and become a cowboy in Texas.

Boyd became a Baptist minister in 1869. In 1896 he moved to Nashville. Boyd admired Booker T. Washington’s postwar philosophy of black initiative and self-help for former slaves, and those ideals helped shape Boyd’s life and career. He wanted freed blacks to launch their own businesses, educate their own children and publish their own literature and art. Boyd started the National Baptist Publishing Board to produce religious literature for black Baptist churches. He also penned many denominational books, including “Plantation Melody Songs” and “An Outline of Negro Baptist History.”

He was instrumental in the birth and development of many institutes, colleges and organizations, and his work was widespread and influential. Boyd helped organize the black community’s 1905 streetcar boycott. Boyd financed the launch of the Nashville Globe, a weekly newspaper serving the black community, which his son, Henry Allen Boyd, published for many years. He helped found Citizens Savings Bank and Trust, initially called One Cent Bank.